Knife pieces recovered from Shariful match other knife parts: Cops

Around a week ago, the accused had filed a bail plea before the sessions court, claiming that a false case had been registered against him, and that the FIR was patently false

MUMBAI: The partially broken knife recovered from Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad, the man arrested for allegedly attacking actor Saif Ali Khan, and the knife blade fragments found on Khan’s injured body and in his residence are parts of a single knife, the Mumbai police submitted to the sessions court on Friday.

Actor Saif Ali Khan

This was stated in a reply filed by the Bandra police, opposing the bail plea of Shehzad, who has alleged that a false case has been made out against him. The blade fragment recovered from Khan’s body and the piece of blade found at his residence were examined by the medical officer, who submitted that they matched the weapon recovered from Shehzad. The findings were revealed in the chemical analysis report submitted by the Directorate of Forensic Science Laboratories (FSL), Kalina.

Also, the prosecution had submitted CCTV footage of Shehzad before he allegedly committed the crime along with footage allegedly of him fleeing Khan’s building after the crime was committed, to FSL. The institute subsequently submitted its facial recognition report to the police. They also stated that left handprints of Shehzad were found at the crime scene.

In their reply, the police observed that they have recorded the statements of the injured eyewitnesses, and the confessional statement of Amit Pandey, who had allegedly helped Shehzad find a job in the city.

Shehzad, a 30-year-old man of Bangladeshi origin, was arrested for allegedly stabbing Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan during a break-in at his Bandra residence in the early hours of January 16. The 54-year-old actor sustained multiple stab wounds when he confronted the intruder and attempted to restrain him during the alleged robbery attempt. Khan was rushed to Lilavati Hospital in Bandra, where he underwent emergency surgery before being discharged a few days later. Shehzad was arrested by the Mumbai Police from Thane two days after the attack.

The reply stated that Shehzad is a Bangladeshi citizen who was residing in India illegally, adding that if released on bail, he might flee to his country. It said that the citizenship certificate and voter card they recovered from Shehzad showed that he was a Bangladeshi citizen. The reply said police have also received the DNA testing report of Shehzad’s blood sample, which was sent to the FSL.

“The crime committed by the accused person in the said crime is of very serious nature and strong evidence of the crime against the accused person is available,” submitted the prosecution. The accused might entice witnesses if released on bail, said the reply.

Around a week ago, Shehzad had filed a bail plea before the sessions court, claiming that a false case had been registered against him, and that the FIR was patently false. The plea was filed before sessions Judge SM Patil on March 28.

Advocate Ajay Gawali, who filed the plea, contended that there is no material to connect Khan with the crime and the FIR is an “imaginary story” of the complainant. The plea said that Shehzad has co-operated with the investigation and no useful purpose would be served by detaining him further in custody. Observing that this is an incident of misuse and abuse of legal provisions, the plea said, “the charges sought to be attributed to the applicant are totally baseless and false and the applicant is falsely implicated”.